A young man approached by two police officers in Wrexham town centre pulled a knife out of his pocket and pointed it towards an officer’s throat.

Daniel Redford, 21, believed that people wanted him killed and so carried the knife for protection.

Mold Crown Court heard that he was over-powered and arrested – and it emerged that he was a member of Shadow Crew, described in court as a group of like-minded people who were interested in death and the paranormal.

Defending barrister Simon Rogers said that it was no more sinister than that.

Redford, who had stopped taking his medication for depression and was self-medicating on cannabis, admitted possessing a serrated edged kitchen knife which he used to threaten a police officer in Wrexham town centre. He was jailed for 32 weeks.

Judge Rhys Rowlands said two police officers saw Redford walking in Regent Street in broad daylight on November 26 last year. He was carrying what turned out to be a golf club shank, minus its head.

When stopped, he produced the knife from under his coat quickly and pointed it with some force at the neck of one of the officers.

“He was extremely concerned, not unnaturally, for the safety of himself and his female colleague,” the judge said.

There was a struggle, Redford refused to let go of the knife, and only after a threat of being tazered did he release it.

Redford claimed that he was carrying them “for his own protection”, but they were weapons capable of causing serious injury, he said.

He had brought it out aggressively towards a public servant who was simply carrying out his duty.

“This is possessing a knife in very dangerous circumstances in the town centre in broad daylight,” Judge Rowlands told him.

Interviewed, Redford claimed there were lots of people after him. Half of them would like to see him dead, he claimed, and he carried the weapons to protect himself.

He was unpopular and needed to protect himself by carrying the weapons.

Mr Rogers said that his client suffered from mental health problems, was receiving help from a community psychiatric team, had stopped taking cannabis, and had moved away from his previous associates in the Wrexham area and was now living in Nottingham.